TWIP Family Photography!

Daily Photo – The Coolest Place in the Phoenix Summer

…was probably this place. It was one of our stops along our incredible Phoenix photo walk. I knew it was gonna be hot, but not THAT hot. It was a welcome relief when the photo walk ended up back in the bar for the little after-photo-walk talk. I think that evening's shower was about the best I ever had!

USA Tour Highlights

Man, I love this video… the tune is so catchy. Sometimes I just play it when I’m cleaning up my studio! 🙂

Daily Photo – Golf Practice in Arizona at Dove Mountain

We had a Very Fun Evening at Dove Mountain in Arizona. We had our party bus with the whole crew on during the USA Photo Walk Tour and we were driving through Arizona. It popped into my mind that, hey, maybe there's a Ritz-Carlton around here! They were one of our awesome sponsors, so I called up and there was! It's here at Dove Mountain and an hour later, we pulled up the bus. We opened the door and wine bottles poured out of the bus and we stumbled out, looking like death warmed over. Next thing I knew, the whole staff was there to greet us and shake hands. And then this ranger guy popped out of nowhere with a snake coiled up his arm and beckoned us down to see all his other snakes… it was full-on but so fun! The night finally ended with this beautiful sunset. We were eating dinner right by this golf course and I walked over to get this shot.

Meditation App Reminder

If you’re looking to try a fun and easy meditation app, try “One Giant Mind.” A friend recommended this to me and it works great! It’s a fun method that anyone can do, even many of my friends that told me that “can’t” meditate! 🙂

Daily Photo – Burning Rocks in Sedona

I need to spend more time in Sedona! It's not the most convenient place in the world, but it sure was beautiful. And now that I'm even more into yoga and meditation and stuff than ever, I should get back there and vortex it up! I mention a few days ago how islands often have nice sunsets, but now that I think about it, so does Arizona!

More Videos Coming

We’re getting into a groove a little bit when it comes to creating and editing videos… be sure to subscribe to the Stuck In Customs YouTube Channel to see all the latest ones!

Daily Photo – Sedona Storm

Wow I almost got stuck in a torrential downpour here! You don't want to be hiking around when these things hit… the clay on these mountains in Sedona gets super-slippery and it's a great recipe for going ass-over-teakettle. There's a little house up there on top of that mountain —don't know if you can see it or not, but it looks like the universe is about to suck up the house!

Introducing the Trey Mega Pack!

In celebration of the new USA Photo Walk Tour, we are releasing the Trey MEGA Pack, which is everything I’ve ever done, all in one pack. There is a special discount code “TREYUSA” to save another $100 — for a total of $300 off the full normal price. So, it’s a great deal!

This package has been our most common request, but it took me years to put it together! Now you can get everything I’ve done here, all at once. It’s a super-convenient way to download everything, all at once. From Tutorials to Presets to eBooks, it comes with an absolute boatload of goodies. Everything is self-paced and perfect for every skill level from Beginners to Intermediate to Advanced. As you’d assume with a package this epic, everything is covered.

Naturally, you get the my Complete HDR Tutorial plus all of the other tutorials including the Lightroom Tutorial, Organize Your Photos, Textures Tutorial, Landscape & Travel Photography series from New Zealand, Midnight In Paris tutorial, and the Art of Photography Tutorial.

Want all the presets at once? I’ve got ya covered there too! You’ll get all the Lightroom Presets up until June 2015 (we do monthly releases), so you’ll end up with about 200 presets. You’ll also get both volumes of the Photomatix Presets.

eBooks? Yes! All of them! The Organize Your Photos eBook, the HDR Tutorial eBook, the Beauty of Ambiguity, 10 Essential Photoshop Skills, 10 Principles of Beautiful Photography, Top 10 HDR Mistakes and How to Fix Them, and Composing the Photo, Special Edition.

If you were to get all that stuff separately, it’s well over $700 USD. But with this super pack all at once, you get it for $399 (if you use the discount code “TreyUSA” for a limited time), which is a savings of over 30%! And, as always, there’s a money-back guarantee if you don’t enjoy everything, so you have nothing to lose!

I know you’ll learn a ton and really enjoy yourself with this stuff! Be sure to tell your friends about it too if you do have a transformative experience… we kind of live on word-of-mouth around here, so that would be amazing!

Would I Recommend a Zero-G Flight

Even after reading the account belo

Daily Photo – The Worst Experience of My Life That I Thought Would Be the Best

I’ve always wanted to go space. From watching Star Trek to the Jetsons to Star Wars, and well, to everything sci-fi, I’ve always planned to go to space! I always knew step one was a zero-G flight to get myself ready for zero-G movement. Well, this was a crash course with total hell. BTW that’s Peter Diamondis in this photo with me. We flew together… and it was utter hell… not the Peter part… the parabolic part.

This plane goes up quite high and does about 12 reverse parabolic dives. This was news to me! I thought the zero-G bit was when the plane was DIVING, equal to gravity, but that’s not how it works at all. It makes “humps” in the air that kind of throw you up in the air (and make you throw up) for about 20 seconds before it makes another dip. The idea is that you are weightless on the humps and 2-3Gs on the dips.

Total Hell.

I have a Really Strong Stomach, and by iteration 8, I was lodged into a wall-belt just heaving my stomach contents into a bag. It was terrible… oh god I’ll never forget. About 1/3 of us were in this same ignoble position…

But, after the flight, I talked to my astronaut friend Ron Garan. He told me not to worry about it… that it is nothing like being in space. It’s the negative G’s combined with the rapid-fire positive G’s that would do the strongest man in… so that made me feel “a little” better.

The Arcanum Photo Critique and Make-Over

As we march toward opening the doors to TheArcanum.com, you’re invited to participate in this special event just for our community! Through participating in this event our community will get a taste of The Arcanum Experience – learning through constructive critiques, which is just one of the many things that happen inside the hallowed magical doors!

The Arcanum Photo Critique and Make-Over event is a Google+ Hangout On Air, open to the public, scheduled for Monday February 10th at 7pm.

Since you already applied to The Arcanum – we truly hope you’ll submit a photo to be critiqued. If not, no worries at all! Either way, you can watch the live event! 🙂

And if you’re wondering when the doors will officially open for The Arcanum, the answer is as soon as magically possible! We’re doing a test run right now with all the Masters to work out any kinks. Also, we are a bit (!!) overloaded with Apprentice applications, so it will take a while to ramp up. It may be a good opportunity for you to pop over and update your application!

Daily Photo – Horseshoe Bend

This place is amazing, but quite scary. It was very hard for me to be here. I am not personally scared of heights, although I would not say that I'm a big risk-taker. I don't get super-close to the edge, and if I do, I make sure that there is at least a smaller dropoff so I don't go all the way to my death quickly.

But the other people here would just walk right up to the edge. They'd run along it, sit there with their legs dangling, and all other sorts of crazy things. I spent most of my mindspace worrying about everyone else, which is certainly not like me. I'm usually in my own world. I think I was perhaps worried because I didn't actually want to see anyone fall. This was both altruistic and selfish. Naturally, I don't want to see anyone die like that. But also, I don't want to see anyone die like that. You know, it would just kind of stick with you.

Well, it was a truly beautiful place. I hate to be so morbid in my description… I would have much preferred not to see anyone else there in a scary position, though.

Malcolm Gladwell at Zeitgeist

Speaking of Scottsdale (today’s photo), the main reason I came here was for Google Zeitgeist. There were many interesting speakers, but I think you’ll find this one below especially good!

Daily Photo – The Pool at the Four Seasons in Scottsdale

I’m always impressed at how nice and how different every Four Seasons is. This one in Scottsdale was as unique and beautiful as the others. This amazing pool was very inviting and open late into the night… and that is when it was the most interesting because of these crazy lights that would change color every few seconds.

Even though this data is anecdotal, I can also be very objective and tell you that the camera doesn’t matter (with certain exceptions). For example, if you’re doing hardcore animal or bird photography, then you’ll probably want to keep around those specialized DSLR systems. But that is the whole point of this piece – that use cases for giant camera bodies and glass will become increasingly marginalized to the point where Nikon and Canon are on the edge rather than the hump of the bell curve.

I have a very good friend that is high-placed in the industry — I won’t repeat his name — but he had the lovely prescient quote: “Nikon and Canon will become like Lionel trains – for collectors.”

The Camera doesn’t matter

So, I see you’re sitting there saying, “Trey, the camera doesn’t matter!” Yes, I’m here to tell you the camera doesn’t matter — I agree! And, assuming you’ll be buying more camera equipment in the next five years, then why, pray tell, do you think that you’ll continue buying giant DSLRs? You’ll have ever-increasing superior choices that enable you to a) buy a much smaller camera that has superior performance and b) spend a fraction of the same amount.

And you can look at me and a few other pros that have made the switch. I don’t compromise on quality. Sony didn’t pay me to switch or sponsor me or anything. They even offered to send me unlimited cameras and lenses and I told them no. So that’s not what drove my decision – I simply want the best. When I travel around to awesome locations, I only want to use the best because I may never get back there again. My Sony cameras are a mere fraction of the size and a mere fraction of the cost. Look, you can easily spend $4,000+ on a big DSLR system, but my little NEX was only about $1,000. I can also buy all the lenses I need for a song too.

Furthermore, who knows what Sony will announce next? It’s just 2013… this is the most exciting time ever in the history of camera technology.

Look at the scary numbers

Okay, so let’s say you don’t like my anecdotal extrapolations. Let’s look at some of the actual numbers. Nikon makes 78% its profit from Camera sales. Yearly sales of DSLRs have dropped 10.9% percent (according to IDC’s Christopher Chute research director of worldwide digital imaging). Canon’s in the same boat, but at least they make printers and have other businesses to fall back on. But their DSLR line is in the same boat as Nikon. And to think, the DSLR market used to be one that was growing by double digits for the last ten years.

Even scarier, the rate of market decline is accelerating each quarter.

Nikon shares are down 33% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Interesting that people outside of the camera industry see this trend better than those of us in it.

Shooting with the NEX system in Tokyo

So, while I’m here in Japan, the executive teams at Nikon and Canon are continuing to bury their heads in the sand. I have wondered why Sony seems to be so much more on the ball and making such interesting cameras and systems. I think it is because they have a younger management team. Also, I notice they are much more engaged with social media. I know this Sony guy here in New Zealand named Tim Barlow that totally gets social media and how it is tied into product development, marketing, and the photography community as a whole. I never really got that feeling from Nikon or Canon.

Don’t feel threatened

I notice that when I write these “Death knell of the DSLR” articles that people come out with pitchforks. Hey man, I’m not telling you that you have to get rid of your camera — I’m here with good news! Since you’ll undoubtedly be buying more equipment for the next X years (you will concede this, yes), you’ll be able to upgrade in every possible way that matters: smaller size, more flexibility, better software, lower cost. Every single trend line points to this.

The current DSLR system you have will serve you very well. In fact, you can of course make the argument that you’ll never need anything else for the rest of your life! But com’on… let’s be honest… most people that are into digital photography also enjoy buying new stuff every few years. Just keep an open mind…

I know I’m pretty much alone in these thoughts. I go set up my tripod in a popular spot and I’m surrounded by 20 other dudes with DSLRs. They look at me at my little camera and scoff. Whenever people give me those wonderfully condescending looks, I take solace in the lucid truth of their own insecurity. Furthermore, for years, photographers have been brainwashed and told that the only way to take a professional photo is to use a DSLR. That’s rubbish. And I’ll Hemingway fight anyone that wants to fight about it.

So many options with smaller, mirrorless cameras!

There is an amazing community around these mirrorless cameras now – and we are all so excited it is crazy. Have you seen all the vim and vigor around the micro-four thirds cameras like the Olympus OMD and the Panasonic Lumix? Those are also awesome cameras and they can do some things no DSLR could dream of. They even have one feature that I wish my Sony had! I was with my friend Gage here in New Zealand when he came over for a week’s photo adventure, and he showed me this feature that blew my mind! We were shooting some fire dancers, and he opened up the shutter and showed me the photo developing on the sensor as time moved forward. I saw the light trails building section by section! He can just stop it whenever he wants. And this is just one of a thousand different cool things this new technology brings.

Soon, DSLRS will go the way of the Blackberry.

There is so much disruption in this space. Another reason for the decline in DSLRs is the rise in mobile phone cameras. Androids and iPhones now come with some amazing little sensors and great software. Many people who once opted for a DSLR are now happy with their mobile phone cameras. I think that these mirrorless systems are still vastly superior to mobile phone cameras, but this delta may decrease over time as well.

Nikon and Canon have released mirrorless systems but they have been generally considered quite weak. I don’t know if this is because of a generally bad design ethic and lack of innovation, or if they were worried about creating a mirrorless system that could cannibalize their sacred cash cow. I worry it is the latter.

More on the switch away from DSLRs

I sat down with Frederick Van Johnson from This Week in Photography to go through all the various reasons and dispel misconceptions. He asked a ton of different questions and we got into the meat of it all. “‘To take an interesting photo, some may choose to carry around a lot of metal and glass and mirrors and silicon. I choose to carry around less metal and glass and silicon. Oh, and no mirrors.’ – Me, quoting myself.” – Trey Ratcliff

Small cameras on a client job?

Heck yeah! In fact, regular readers know that I don’t do client work — I’ve been a professional photographer for a long time, but I’ve always said no to client work. There is nothing wrong with it of course, but I instead prefer to take whatever creative photos I want, own all the rights, then license them out later. Clients will hire you based on the quality of your portfolio, not the size of your camera. Or, at least, they should (and increasingly will).

However, I have made ONE exception! Air New Zealand came to me with an incredible situation. So I said yes! This is my new home-country and I think it’s gonna be an awesome shoot. In a few days, I’m headed up there with my little Sony NEX cameras. I’m sure the crew and the 20+ people on the ground there will be aghast! I love it. I’m just gonna own it and blast in there with all my chakras pointing forwards.

Sony NEX-7 Review

If you want to find out more about this camera I’m using, see the full-on Sony NEX-7 Review here on the site. Enjoy!

Daily Photo – The Lower Antelope Canyon

This was my first time into the famous slot canyons — I’ve always wanted to go! Look, here’s the honest truth. You just can’t take a bad shot in there. That’s nice, really – lay up after lay up… so then I guess you can goof around and try to do something interesting and unique and have fun with it… that is what I did here at f/11 exposure and playing with multiple shafts of light streaming in from above.

Since I upgraded my Flickr account, I have been exporting most of the non-horse.jpg pictures. They are not super-well organized yet, but they are good enough. Here are some pictures from Sedona, Arizona. There is also a picture of my bloody leg when I ran into a cactus while trying to get an interesting picture of some stupid rock.